"This Is Untouchability": NGO Flags Segregated Burial Grounds For SC Christians

A Tamil Nadu-based NGO has demanded the abolition of separate burial grounds for Scheduled Caste (SC) Christians, calling the practice a continuing form of untouchability that persists despite a 2024 court order against discrimination in burial rites.

A. Kathir, executive director of the NGO Evidence, raised the demand while speaking to media persons on Wednesday, urging the state government to intervene immediately in what he described as a caste-based denial of dignity even in death.

Kathir cited a recent incident in Tiruchi district, where the body of an 89-year-old SC Christian, Raju, was denied burial in the common burial ground by dominant Christian groups. Raju and his wife, Saleth Mary, 82, both retired teachers, lived in Kottapalayam near Thuraiyur and had three sons and three daughters, one of whom serves as a priest in a church in Rome. Raju died on July 17.

According to Kathir, dominant Christians in the village suggested that Raju's family bury him in a cemetery earmarked for SC Christians, following the mass at St. Sebastian Church. When villagers objected and demanded burial in the common ground, a peace committee meeting was convened at the office of the Musiri Revenue Divisional Officer on July 19. The body was eventually buried on July 20, but only after the family was directed to hold the mass at St. Sebastian Church rather than St. Mary Magdalene Church, the church used by dominant Christian groups.

Kathir said Christians belonging to groups such as Christian Parayar, Christian Reddiar, Christian Vanniyar, Christian Naidu, Christian Vellalar and Christian Udayar together make up 60% of the village, with various Hindu castes forming the remaining 40%. While dominant Christians hold mass at St. Mary Magdalene Church and bury their dead on a 2.92-acre site, SC Christians are confined to St. Sebastian Church and a seven-cent plot, even though the entire stretch is poramboke, or government-owned, land. He said SC Christians had been burying their dead on that small plot for over 120 years, with officials insisting the arrangement continue, effectively allowing an administrative body to sanction what the law itself prohibits.

Kathir stressed that the caste-based segregation extends beyond burial grounds to places of worship, since dominant Christian groups and SC Christians in the village are made to attend mass at separate churches altogether. He argued that this dual system, sustained for over a century, cannot be treated as mere social custom once it involves the denial of access to a shared, publicly-owned resource on the basis of caste.

"There should be a single mass, single burial and no discrimination in conducting the rituals," Kathir said, describing the segregation as untouchability and questioning how the government could direct different sets of people to follow different rules for the same rite.

Kathir pointed to earlier legal efforts to challenge the practice. In 2014, a group that included Raju had approached a civil court against the dual burial system. In 2024, the court had directed that there be no discrimination in burial. Despite this order, the peace committee meeting at the RDO office once again mandated that SC Christians hold their mass at St. Sebastian Church and bury their dead on the land set aside for them, effectively reviving the very segregation the court had ruled against.

The NGO's fact-finding team has called on Christian leaders and priests to publicly declare that there will be a single mass and single burial for all, regardless of caste. Kathir also urged the state government to press the Centre to allow persons from Hindu Scheduled Castes who convert to Christianity to retain their Scheduled Caste status. At present, such converts are legally classified as Backward Classes rather than Scheduled Castes, denying them constitutional protections available to SC communities.

Inputs from The Hindu